A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

An Electric Toothbrush Built for Travel

In the early days of this newsletter I highlighted a USB rechargeable electric toothbrush that was compact and easy to pack. Unfortunately, it crapped out on me six months later (dead battery I think) while my wife’s Philips One by Sonicare version is still going strong. I’ve ordered one of my own from this link because it comes with replacement heads as well in a bundle.

Going Straight to Your Car With Hertz

I encountered high summer rental car rates in Richmond and Atlanta across the board on this current trip, so I went ahead and rented with Hertz. I was glad I did because I found that they’ll let you upload your driver’s license and take a selfie to check in ahead of time from your phone. When you get to the garage, you go straight to the spot number they texted and drive away, no waiting in line. You don’t have to book directly with them or be a loyalty member either: my second booking was via Priceline. (National does this as well, but is mostly aimed at biz travelers.)

Changing “Low Season” Travel Trends

I was recently at a travel blogger conference meeting with the rep from a city in northern Germany and she told me, “Don’t come in December, the hotels are all full then.” I wasn’t surprised: add remote work, home schooling, and global warming together and you’ve got major disruptions in what we used to think were set patterns. I wouldn’t go as far as this article that has “The End of Low Season” in its title, but don’t automatically assume a destination is going to be empty just because it used to be at that time of year in the ‘00s.

Goodbye WeWork, Hello Hyper-local Co-Working

This interesting article from Wired highlights the fact that WeWork’s demise does not mean that there isn’t a strong demand for co-working spaces. We just need people who can run them better and put them in the right places. In many cases, those places are, not surprisingly, outside of the city business core where offices used to be. There are a lot of potential trends popping up for community work spaces (some billed as “clubs”) and it’s nice to see creative repurposing of buildings to serve a whole different purpose.